Mary Katrantzou spoke about falling in love backstage at her show—or rather, a child’s first passion for dressing up, be it as a cowboy or a ballerina. What evolved out of that was Katrantzou’s own romance—an early commitment to American ’50s Western styling with the first look, a boxy menswear check jacket with cowboy shirt leather detailing appliquéd across the shoulders.

Katrantzou has had far more elaborate, almost psychedelically out-there, inspirations before—merges of imagery whose logic you can barely follow, but whose results become magically original. This one gave her room for expanding on embellishment and textile techniques, but the chief logic of this collection seemed to be pointed in another direction—at proving that Katrantzou is a designer who can do wearable day pieces as well as incredible party dresses. Since starting her business in 2008, she has captured young upscale customers who love her cocktail dresses and red carpet eveningwear, but what does Mary Katrantzou everydaywear look like?

The designer made a good case for a tooled leather pencil skirt, and the slightly pervy blouse—a sheer black polka-dot one, and a chestnut ciré silk yoked version—all of them “off” enough to be cool. At the end, there was a finale of extravagant dresses in tulle, several of which could find their way to the Oscars. But actually, it was the simple shirtdresses with manically jeweled panels on the front that came out as the winners.